Thanks for highlighting it.

And then you are sol. Or should I say we are sol.

and yes, we would all be sol.

I think people are in as much denial of our debt problem as our global warming problem. Just like people used to believe housing would always go up. Amazing.

I must be hallucinating that entire debt ceiling debate.

but demise from 'greatest' will increase much more rapidly than overwise, so it canNOT.

I really don't think the US is as fragile as that. I don't think any political system of that size and flexibility is just going to wear out suddenly one day. Even if the military spending were halved, the US would still be the only real superpower, and it would still be able to find ways to lever capital out of the rest of the world. It would never be in the interest of the nation not to look for new ways to use the other nations around it.

American belief systems are incredibly elastic and manageable. The social support for America's goals can simply be reconstructed by whoever is smart enough to do the reconstruction.

This is a hideously sweeping generalisation, but, Americans don't really believe things that are carefully examined and thus added to their value systems through an understanding that the belief is part of a picture of the world that is *necessary*. Generally speaking, they believe things that make them feel good. A bit like the idea that all the ugliness that America is capable of perpetuating is simply going to disappear through imaginary "historical forces". That feels good, doesn't it?

But why would it be true?

It's comforting to think that America is an empire and will be subject to the same demise as other empires have in the past, but the facts just don't bear this out. America is vastly more efficient at managing narratives than it's hegemonic forebears and has the best tech, the most money, the most aggressive military, access to the most resources, the most highly trained professionals... and, crucially, the most mentally flexible population.

Usually what happens in the collapse of empires is that the structure runs up against something it didn't foresee and internal rigidity prevents it from adapting. But America is all about adapting, that's how it's gained it's power in the first place.

I really don't think there's any hope of the United States ever not being the world's sole superpower. And, if I'm honest I think all that's going to happen is that it's going to carry on getting stronger. I think it's only a matter of time until the next Iraq War event swings the US populace back into the "get the bastards" mode.

You may think that ordinary people have a moral power to resist being perpetually manipulated into supporting acts of aggression, but I don't. And the main reason I don't is this website. The difference between the reaction to Obama and Bush doing roughly the same kind of thing has been a revelation to me.

Even if the States collapsed to something like a third of its current economic and military power, (which isn't going to happen) it would STILL be a superpower.

It's sad to think that the world will slowly be absorbed into a primal hegemony of consumption and destruction. But I really don't think there's any way of stopping it now. People have been well aware of the alternatives for decades, but they don't really care. Mostly they just want to be happy.